"And in those simple beautiful movements I remembered what was really important in training; that consistency trumps intensity; all the time. That intensity is born from consistency. That one cannot force it, one has to lay in wait for it, patiently, instinctively, calmly and be ready to grab it when Grace lays it down in front of you."

Saturday, November 30, 2013

Got all pumped up reading Pavel's new book "Simple and Sinister" which is all about the One arm swing and getup as the new, remastered Program Minimum. I'm not able to do getups yet but my one arm swings are going great!

As Pavel writes " when you (if you're a man) can show a 48 kg who's the boss, you will have become serious 'antifragile' ". My sentiments exactly! I'm not quite the Boss of it yet but it's listening much better these days.

Today however the 44 kg was on deck and that was heavy enough as I have a trip to Israel SFG coming up on Tuesday and I don't want to be 'dinged' in any way for it. But I slept great, woke up with my shoulders feeling as good as they have in ages and warmed up well. No reason not to go for it. But man it was cold in the cave today and it took forever to warmup ( hence the sweats in the video)

my grip felt strong today and good thing as these heavy one arms really test it. But I still skipped the 36 kg bell as I just don't like mine and it always is tougher on my grip than making the next jump to the 40kg

Two hand swings
48 kg x 10 x 7 sets
70 reps
7420 lb

these were strong and I thought, briefly, about doing ten sets but 7 matching what I did last week but with a heavier bell was enough of a jump

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Last week sucked big time. My snatch felt all over the place and I got pretty discouraged. To the point where I thought that I had to take a break from it as it has just been really not "there" for months. And it used to be my favorite kb move! For many many years.

But I have never snatched like anyone else, certainly not standard RKC or SFG technique so I have always been striving to get my groove more in line with the basic ideal.

Except it doesn't work for me . :)
It's the same as when I spent so long trying to do my power squat with a low bar and wide stance. Made sense, technically, but it was just not optimal for my body. I could do it, and fairly decently at that, but it wasn't optimal.

My snatch form is very similar to my deadlift form- it takes a very stiff legged appearance and I tend to lean into it. For me, with my lumbar pelvic rhythm if I lean forward my hips go back. If I sit back I tend to squat and have much less power.

When I swing I can do standard technique no problem. But the swing is not the snatch and I just let myself realize that today, although I have been down this road before.
The above picture was taken in 2007 I believe and it was when my snatch production was at it's best and the groove the strongest and most comfortable for me.Why I let myself change it I don't know but I did.

Now I realize it was the right technique and today was a great lesson that that is true. Instead of sitting back behind the midline on the descent I just let the bell go over head WHILE I STAY FLAT FOOTED AND VERTICAL, NOT trying to sit back behind midline and then go with the bell. I leg my knees and legs do what they will, which looks like they stay pretty straight ( 10 degree of bend or so- just enough to get the glutes involved).

Today felt smooth and fast and powerful. My lockout is shy over directly overhead, but that's just how it is with my shoulders right now. BUT at least they don't hurt. Neither did my back and I could feel the flow and power of the bell. About damn time.

I was just about to quit this move but I have hard time quitting something I haven't figured out.

Snatch
16 kg x 5/5/ x3
20 kg x 5/5/
22 kg x 5/5
x 6/6
x 7/7
x 8/8
x 9/9
x 10/10
90 reps
4,410 lb
these went great the 24 would have gone as well too. I alternated the last few sets with vibrams and my oly shoes and surprisingly the oly shoes out me too far forward with this groove! The vibrams give me more latitude for balance.

Belt squats
24 kg x 20 x 2 sets

playing with form and this is the move. High reps and take the back out of it. Quad development and knee flexion come before strength

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Tracy and I did a Skype interview with our good friend Balasubramian Ramana ( aka Rambodoc) last sunday AM ( SIX am!) covering a vast array of KB and training subjects. Ram should be called the KB Mike Wallace! He is not exactly shy with controversial subjects and questions!
Here is the interview in four parts:

Monday, November 25, 2013

This went well. Got a very solid stretchout in this morning with an emphasis on wide behind the head stick stretches and then press behind the neck work with rotations and progressively deeper stretches. My shoulders like it and said yes. Trying to basically do shoulder dislocates is the goal but I have a long way to go. This really opens up the pecs and front delts in a way they don't like at all; because they are so stinking tight; but that's the point.

I still can't hold a squat bar in the rack comfortably and that's gotta change. that's crazy. This is a solid direction.

Medium, close and wide stance squat stretches for time as well. First round has 75 second sets then the second 60 seconds and the third 45 or so. This was an improvement on time and depth. I can really feel the muscles let go as they fatigue

this went great. I actually played with a few jerks as well at the end and after the main sets. there is potential there now, I can see it. Shoulders were fine with this as well as the knees. Very happy with this move. Overhead position felt better than last week as well. This is a burner as well and when I can do 5 sets of 10/10 it will be a solid accomplishment.

Kb squat cleans
2 16's x 5 x 5 sets

these felt ok but the depth is still so so and I'm not sure it's the vehicle to get farther down. fun to do but I have to get lower in the basic movement first

KB Front squat
2 20's x 3 x 3

this was an attempt to just get lower but it wasn't that succesfull.Plus heavier isn't the answer for my legs. bloody reps are :)

Step up
3 sets of 10/10 on a 14" box wearing my oly shoes. these actually felt really good. played around with step patterns left up /left down or right up left down, etc. what actually felt like it might work the best is basically a pistol standing on the box- so the leg doesn't have to stick up, it can just drop done. A true one legged squat.

I need an exercise where I can control the negative and get progressive depth.

Crawls
5 laps 50 feet. these were good but I could feel I did them yesterday. last lap was done at faster speed and it went well. :)

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Late start this morning after doing an 1.5 hour interview with Ram in India for his new Soul of Strength gym. It was great fun but it got me started very late

Solid 60 minute walk around the park with some extra mileage thrown in. Average speed was 2.7 mph and I did not break to stretchout the squats at all this time. Just steady state walking.

Then 100 feet of crawl/squat crawl. Basically I would crawl as far as I could and when I got tired I would rest in the squat position ( actually frog- hands on ground). Then, back into the crawl again.

Then I did it in reverse ( way more rests, this was tough) for another 100 feet. Shoulders held up fine which was great and got some excellent upper body work in as well as legs and hips. and lungs :)

I think adding in a pushup rest position would be excellent as well. So it would be crawl/ squat/ crawl/pushup etc. I like this :)

Saturday, November 23, 2013

A much better day than Wednesday. Slept well, ate well yesterday and the body was feeling recovered and strong. I did TONS of overhead stretching and mobility work the last two days and warmed up well this morning too with shoulder circles as well as stick work.
Working the stick behind the head and back and really getting the pecs and front delts stretched out and man they are tight.
Have to go really wide to do it but so be it. has to be done.Also playing with behind the neck presses with the stick and this seems to be a good thing to do. It requires quite a lot of external rotation and it stretches the front arm line just where I need it

didn't do any transfers, just set the bell done and power swung it to get started. Left to right transfers are fine but for some reason my left bicep tendon gets weird when I go right to left with heavy weight! Not after I grab it, but as I transfer it! Very strange but it's not a big deal. Just set it down and re start.

Very happy with the bell speed, height and power on each set. not to mention the last set of 10/10 which was not that hard at all

Power swings

These went well. With all my recent quad emphasis I need to get back to some more hip dominated swings and really focus on a slightly wider stance and really getting the hips enough work. This helps

Power swings
44 kg x 5
x 6
x 7
x 8
x 5
31 reps

These went very strong. haven't done more than five reps in a long time. Thought about going up to ten but then came to my senses. :)

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Rough one today. All the new movements and wearing the Oly shoes didn't mess me up too badly from Monday's training but there were definitely and few different spots that were talking to me all day yesterday and today. Slept and ate well yesterday so I should have been more recovered than I was but I weren't :)

Going overhead again this afternoon wasn't feeling too good. I gutted it out but it was just one of those tough days you just get through. Plus Glenn was still out and it was cold and raining hard. Just tough to get a bunch of energy going. Got it done but it was just plain work.

Nothing wrong with that but my snatch groove of late has just sucked and my TKR hasn't seemed to help things as it's seemingly shifted my upper body "issues" around a lot. My overhead ROM is just plain worse than it's been in years and that's on both sides.

I don't think two overhead days is going to work now and definitely not with one day in between. Since I think I can get away with the push press I will keep that in and let the snatch rest for awhile again.

This happens periodically it seems. I lose my groove on my snatch, whether it's from going heavy, or fast ( max vo2) , take some time off, regain it and get back hope, train it, then lose it again :)
Tired of this, actually and now that I can squat and train my legs again my motivation to really work the snatch, the last athletic thing I had left before, is waning.

One arm swing warmup : 16 kg x 5/5 x 3

Swing snatch ( with Oly shoes)
16 kg x 8/8 ( one swing one snatch 4 times)
20 kg x 8/8 x 4 sets - this actually felt pretty good for awhile but my descent was off and it was throwing my around. took off the heels and went back to vibrams
24 kg x 8/8 x 4 sets these actually started to feel good

straight snatch reps
24 kg x 7/7 x 4 sets

wow, looking back at the numbers it wasnt' that bad. and the video looks much better than it felt but it was a slog. 12 sets of snatches, not bad work at all

Monday, November 18, 2013

I used to have springy legs. I was never a great tumbler but, for the times, I wasn't that bad, and for the average person I could soar. I was fast and could touch the rim of a basketball hoop at 5'5". I had a wicked volleyball game as well and love to bounce of the trampoline and diving board.
That changed pretty much after my knee injury in '74 but not THAT much. The knee worked fairly well for another ten years and I could still run hard in 1987 if I wanted to.

I got into bike racing because I wanted quads like the pro cyclists I saw, all lean muscle and vascularity.

As a bodybuilder I was obsessed with my quads and worked them harder than any other bodypart.

When I shifted to powerlifting and sitting back in my squats, ostensibly to 'save' my knees I didn't realize how much I was giving up by not training my quads and , really, over developing my posterior chain.

Then it was too late for my knee to actually work anywhere near right and when I discovered kbs it was all I could do to just swing and be happy with that. And I was. There was no getting on my toes anymore and that's where most of the above movements took place; from the bouncing in my tumbling, to the foot position on the bike, to the weight distribution on my foot in my bodybuilder high bar squats. hack squats and leg press and other quad exercises.

But now that I can train my legs again I don't want to make the same mistakes. I wants endurance in my legs, able to hike for hours. And I want some spring in my step, and my legs and the squats and leg movements I do have to prepare that. I don't want to grind grind grind like I did in powerlifting and have legs with absolute strength but no 'looseness' to them, no springy ness :)

Today was a revelation. I've been doing a LOT of quad work, everyday, alternating close stance dynamic stretching( like mobility work) close stance lunging and static stretching days with at least three different stances. And it's working - my ROM is coming along nicely about 123 degrees and I know now that I must keep my weight in the middle of my foot for my leg work and really get my quads back.

I have spent plenty of time on my heels with my power squats and kb swings. Now it's time for a new balance point and it feels right.

I've also grown tired of just grind presses and have tried to do push presses a few time but it just didn't work. It killed my knee and my back didn't like it because of that.
But today was different.

I put my vintage Adidas black and whites on today and thought " cheat the weight up" and it worked like a charm.Just as I had hoped. Using my quads to bypass the 'icky' first part of a dead stop press which just kills the shoulder. Just like in a bench press. It's strong but it's no fun, and I'm not convinced too good for you too. Especially past a certain point. Or age.

this was great! I could have kept on going but thought better of it. No shoulder pain either.plus it was fun throwing the weight around for a change.

KB squat cleans

I was going to just do front squat but thought that since my 'springy' squat stretches in the mornings are going so well at increasing ROM perhaps this version of the squat would do the same as well. It went way better than expected! I need to pull the left leg in closer after watching the tape, but the movement really lends it self to a very 'stretchy' squatting motion for me and my legs and knees liked it a lot.

The shoes felt perfect
16 kg x 3 x 2
16 kg x 5 x 3 sets

kept feeling better but again, it's a totally new movement so I stopped short.

Crawls
4 laps of 30, 20, 15, 15 sets

wow! those were tough! Have to do these more

backwards crawling
3 laps of 10 feet.

even harder! but everything stayed in place.

bodyblade laterals 3 x 10 /10
rear delts with bands 3 x 15 blue band

this was a great workout, hopefully I can walk and shave tomorrow and then we'll see.:)

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Woke up feeling good this morning; neck and shoulder pain pretty much gone and not too stiff. The knee feels great and yesterdays squat stretching helped a bunch as well. Working the legs daily and with high reps really seems to be the right direction. The quad is coming back fast, as is the VMO and the legs just feels great.

Had Joe measure the knee angle this morning with my new goniometer and it looks like I'm about 120-123 degrees of flexion now! That's awesome and validates what the knee movement has been feeling like. More to come and now that I've figured out a little more as to what movements really are going to create more ROM the best is yet to come.

6 am stretchout
short version Rifga
close stance bw squats flat footed 25, 15, 10,10
superset with
knee to heel lunges 5/5 x 4 ( wow! flame on the quads fast!)
On Toes squat 3 sets of 5 - this is weak but important this is like a BW KB Hack squat
Rocking and neck nods from 4 point crawl- this worked VERY sets 2 sets of 15. really feel the quads light up, the hips and the ankles flex. this is a keeper.

these were good but my attempts to keep my eyes looking forward instead of horizon didn't work well once I got past the 28 kg. Too heavy An experiment for Geoff Neupert but I needed the heavy weight right now more than I needed to play with technique. When I get back from Israel I'll experiment more.,

Two hand swings40 kg x 10 x 7 sets

these were solid. Need to get total sets up to ten though. this was a good start

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Now that my knee is so much different I am actually more acutely aware of how jacked up my shoulders are,lol. I dislocated my right one in 1977, ending my gymnastics career, and basically didn't really put my arms much over my head until I started kb training in 2001. That's a lot of time with no overhead mobility, flexibility or strength.

Top it off with tons of heavy heavy work in the horizontal plane and my overhead position is pretty marginal, and hasn't been getting much better over the years despite tons of work on it.

Now that I see how quickly and amazingly different my left leg muscles are acting now that the real issue to my brain, a faulty joint, has been fixed I realize that most of the issue overhead are just due to badly arthritic and damaged shoulders.

Like my left leg used to, they get tight if I train a little, or a lot, or none.Posture makes a huge difference but my job and computer time means I am looking down a lot all day and that is not a good position.

It takes awhile to warmup but then things don't feel so bad.

6-7 am Rifga and full stretchoutlots of time overhead to open the neck and traps ( much better) with bar hangs and stick work.and squats in narrow and wide stances held for 60 second sets. Alternating the rep days with holds for time is the way to go for now it seems.1 pmSnatch16 kg x 5/5 x 320 kg x 5/522 kg x 5/5 x 6/6 x 7/7 x 8/8 x 9/9 x 10/1090 reps with 22 kg 4500 lbsSnatch hold22 kg x 20 sec each side.

these were better than I thought they would be although I can see in the video that I am getting yanked over a bit more than I thought on the left side. I was trying to stay more upright on the descent and that looks like a mistake.

Monday, November 11, 2013

Not a high energy day today. Watched Transporter 3 on my laptop yesterday and spent too much times it seems looking 'down' and woke up with a crick in my neck that didn't want to go away. Neck and traps were sore all day so presses today were extra fun :)

6-7 am
Full rifga ( lots of neck and shoulder mobility)
OS resets and rocking with toes in dorsi and plantar flexion as well in 4 point crawl stance
Overhead stick work with reverse and regular grips

Glenn still out of town working so I was solo today. went right to work after getting home

KB press( short cycle)16 kg x 5/5 x 220 kg x 3/324 kg x 3/3 x 8 sets

the presses actually felt very solid on both arms for a change.Fixing the clean so that the lower arm was more vertical at the catch did the trick. NO spin outs at all on any rep,very pleased. BUT the bells felt heavy! Bodyweight was 157 even this AM so I can't blame it on being light Just tired.

Cleans28 kg x 5/532 kg x 3/3 x 3 sets

this was a good idea. I really have to start doing more heavier cleans if I want to feel stronger pressing the heavier bells. But anything more than three reps was out. Held each rep for 2 seconds in the rack. this was solid

Double bell front squats2 16's x 3 x 7 sets

these went great! Played around with narrower and wider stances as well as OLY shoes and flat feet and the medium stance ( above) with flat feet actually gave the best depth. this is encouraging. Same slightly outside, vertical forearm rack position and gave NO shoulder adjustments.

good solid pump. Was supposed to crawl but didn't want the upper traps to light up. More later

One arm triceps pushdownblack band 4 sets of 12

this is a good exercise for me, hits the triceps and the single arm work seems to let the shoulders stay out of it more.More triceps mass for sure in my future. Extensions coming up/

Sundays walk58 minutes6200 steps2.7 mph average

this started out strong and got tired after the second lap.Very surprising after the last two weeks of stairs and hills and a continuous flat walk would make them tired. but that is the only thing I haven't been doing of late and my legs felt it. in a good way. Made the 5 laps but had considered six at how strong I started out. Oh well. have to listen to the body first and foremost.

at end of each lap ( after second) high knee marching for a block length followed by supported wide and narrow squat stretches. Felt great, opened up the tight quads and hips and stretched everything out. depth is getting better

Saturday, November 09, 2013

Finally done with jet lag and some very strange total body soreness I've had for the last few days. It's weird as I've hardly done any work- perhaps that's the problem ,lol.
Got a proper Rifga stretchout this morning and that helped as well. Lot of lacrosse ball work on the forearms opened up my shoulder , as it always does, and the shoulder has been talking to me for more than a few days.
For some reason the only thing I couldn't find in either Croatia or Italy was a stretching stick! So I didn't my arms overhead as much as I need to and the shoulder was touchy the whole trip.
But that got sorted out today, my weight was good ( 155.8!) actually a recent high( say hello to carbs/bread and eating early again :) and I felt strong. The knee is feeling very good and all that active rest work yesterday and no ill effect at all.

Very cool

8 amOne arm swings16 kg x 5/5 x 320 kg x 5/5 24 kg x 5/528 kg x 5/532 x 5/5 x 10 sets100 reps7000 lbsTwo hand swings32 kg x 840 kg x 8 x 5 sets40 reps3520 lbsTwo KB front squats2 14's x 3 x 3
these actually felt good. I changed the rack position more to the outside of the ribs and lifted the elbows up and under more, after listening to Fabio teach the clean and press in Croatia. Worked well and didn't have any shoulder destabilization like usual, even with these weights. Very promising. I would LOVE to be able to KB front squat some big bells :)

Wednesday, November 06, 2013

Mike Sousa, Fabio and me in Venice.
A great day trio Fabio took us on and of course it involved lots of walking > We drive to Venice from Vincenza then too the vaporatoo( sp) down the canals to the far end of venice. Then we walked back. Again, no problem even with lots of small staircases all over the place as well as the two plus hours of walking back from the end of Venice. The knee is holding up well
Then dinner at El Filo and T Rex Steaks!

Then onto business again and Fabios Stength Congress with 300 attendees. I led the KB section on Satuday after listening to the legendary Boris Sheiko lecture on his powerlifting methodology and compare and contrast the entire gamut of powerlifting methods and styles!

Sunday

my talk on the Renaissance of Strength, Fabio translating

Saturday Fabio and I led the 300 (!) through basic KB training ending with a serious swing, plank, goblet squat workout.

What an amazing two weeks. I never ever thought I could handle this much work and walking, especially just nine weeks out of a TKR but it happened. And I can see now that it was just the beginning. Of many things.

We will be going back to Croatia and Italy next year for SFG 1 courses as well as some other projects Fabio and I cooked up. Israel SFG is coming up in 4 weeks and I can't wait for that, knowing so much more about how to pack and travel for events like this. Now that I can walk as much as I want to and am out of pain the game has totally changed. Its very very cool.

I did a lot of Original Strength work while I was there too, marching in place, crawling every day and it really got a lot done for very little time. Much more to explore here too ,especially for my knee flexion.

Got back to doing rocking this morning during my stretchout and it was much better than ever. Knees on two airex pads, and rocking with head nods with toes in dorsi and plantar flexion. The looser the quads and rectus are the better the knee bends.

wow this took forever to loosen up but at the end, of course, things felt much better. haven't done a 24 kg snatch hold in forever. Had to get back to real training asap as I missed so much kb work these past two weeks

Sled pulls60 lbs x 200 feet x 2= 40060 lbs x 200 feet x 3= 600

1000 feet. wanted to scale down distance but it was too easy so I upped the weight.still easyBarbell curls45 x 1055 x 865 x 865 x 6Tricep extension3 x 12at least got it done but the jet lag and trying to get back on my WD eating schedule made the workout pretty week. Just the start. datsitSisu/

Tuesday, November 05, 2013

( if she could do it, I could do it. Part of the 800 stair trip up and down I took in Rijecka, Croatia)

That's been my training goal ever since I read those words in Pavel's original Russian Kettlebell Challenge book.Most of the time in the last ten years I didn't think it was really possible but never gave up hope.

When I finally had to have my knee replaced I hoped it would facilitate that state of being but wasn't sure either. Going to both Croatia and Italy just nine weeks after that operation and walking climbing and moving more than I have in many many years let me know that not only is it possible but I am well on the way towards that goal.

The trip started out really well as I got to and through the airport which is a freakin' PR for me. I used to be dying by the time we got to the gate. Not this time. Walking fast through the airport unencumbered by pain was almost sublime. But it was the first of many sublime moments on this trip.

The flight over was easy. going through Amsterdam airport required almost as much walking as Frankfurt but again. no problem. Walking felt good, loose, easy. What a pleasure.And without the pain the stress wasn't there at all. No 'wondering how I could make it through the trip if I couldn't get through an airport'.

So wonderful not be limping, be standing out. Just being able to walk like a normal person.
Made it to Venice where our first view was amazing.

the view of pizza in Fabio's hometown of Vincenza was amazing too.

A four hour trip to Croatia the next day and while it was a beautiful city Kastav is nothing but HILLS AND STAIRS! Crazy amount of hills and stairs! I never could have made it without the knee replacement. No way. We had to walk up a slight hill to get to the first set of stairs to go DOWN to the stairs to go to the apartment which was UP stairs!

And everywhere in the town was stairs and hills and stairs and NO PROBLEM WHATSOEVER!!!! Totally crazy as even on the last day before we left I was having to practice going down stairs. Now the stairs downward pattern still isn't perfect but I got it done. And up stairs was easy and strong/

The cert site was a mere 10 minutes walk away from the apartments but it was ALL STAIRS! 200 each direction. I thought about it but let fabio drive me the in the first morning. The candidates walked it from their site and then rewalked it to get lunch and then AGAIN to get home!

So at the end of the first day I walked them back to the apartment. again, no problem, after all that travel and a nice 12 hour day teaching and demo'ing

We had an incredible cert! the candidates were so well prepared, totally tough and had incredible spirit and passion!

PLUS fanny packs are still cool in Croatia!

Our view from our apartment in Kastav

My first walk up the 202 stairs from the cert site to our apartment

Once the cert was over we had the day off so we actually took an hour long hike on the eco trail right behind our place. Man I love having things so close and all in one place. Plus this city was built in the 13th century and is crazy interesting from an historical perspective. So much stone and rock and basic construction that has stood the test of time. Love that stuff

And the knee was perfect. No pain and my walking was strong and steady. It seemed that the more I walked the looser the knee got and the more ROM it got. plus my body craved it.Walking felt better than anything else, standing, sitting or lying. Motion is lotion.

Tuesday Sasa graciously took us to Rijecka

Played with some creature at the top of Trsat castle ( LOTS of stairs, lol )